Board Meeting

 Today was the annual Safety Meeting, among other things, and of course safety is of prime importance for our Museum.  Since the four of us were there, we were able to have an in-person Hicks Car Works board meeting, which doesn't happen too often.  (Photo by Zach - thanks!  But maybe my camera needs to be fixed.  That big white spot on Al's face is not actually there.)  Lacking anything to argue about, we agreed to keep doing what we're doing.  You'll notice we're all carefully clutching our rulebooks.  Harold Krewer gave us some updates to the rules, spoke about various issues we need to be aware of, and Bob Opal instructed us how to fill out the new Hours of Service forms.  Safety First!  Of course, this may not mean much to those of you who don't operate trains at IRM.  So let us advise you not to play with matches, don't run with scissors, don't smoke in bed....

 I would normally go out to the Museum on Thursdays, but this week there was lots of flooding in the area, and my wife wanted me to stay home and keep an eye on the sump pump.  So I finished up some cushions for the 319, among other things.  Here they are, installed in the car.

I also worked on the 36's control system, and made some more slow progress.  I managed to finally get the wires to the defective resistance tubes disconnected.  But since there was no DC power, further testing was not possible.  But I did a lot of cleaning and sorting.  And:

 When the system was being disassembled at Cleveland, one of the set screws on contactor #7 broke off (yellow arrow).  So rather than fix it, the cable was cut in two.  After reinstalling the contactor, I stripped the cables, managed to realign them, and put the new crimp connector in place (white arrow).  Max has a power crimp tool that will do the job, so I'll borrow from him next time I have a chance and finish connecting this contactor.

But don't go away.  Watch this space for further exciting news!